Obesity spreads through social networks

IceDragon · 08-31-2007, 02:54 PM

This is an article by Tom Venuto on how obesity can spread through social networks.

I wasn't really sure where to put it, but what do you guys make of this?

Article.

wala · 08-31-2007, 03:14 PM

Before I look at it, I'm gonna say that I've always thought this. one give away is 90% of the time, you see a group of girls out in a club or shopping or whatever and all of them are obese. That cant be a coinsidence.. I'd dont have time to go into it all but i'll read that article soon, just bust uploading vids I took tonight in my leg session

IceDragon · 09-01-2007, 06:21 AM

This is intriguing...if obesity is a social disorder, then maybe it can be CURED the same way!

Breaking news from New Scientist:

Quote:

Health warnings on stairs could cut obesity

Health warnings printed on flights of stairs, encouraging people to walk rather than take the elevator, could prove a potent weapon in the battle against obesity, researchers say.

Over the course of a six-week study researchers monitored the behaviour of 82,000 pedestrians.

Messages like "take the stairs" and "seven minutes of stair climbing daily protects your heart" were printed on stair risers in a UK shopping centre. This led to a 190% increase in the number of people passing up the stairs each day.

Simply decorating the risers with attractive patterns made no significant difference to the number of people using the stairs, suggesting that the increase was entirely due to the healthy messages.

The messages also seemed to have a knock-on effect, increasing the number of people who took nearby flights of stairs by more than half, even though these stairs did not carry health messages.

Encouraging signs

The researchers behind the study, Oliver Webb of the University of Kingston and Frank Eves of the University of Birmingham, both in the UK, even found an increase of 25% in people walking down the staircase – although the messages are not visible from the top of the stairs. Webb and Eves say this suggests that stair messages would encourage people to develop the habit of taking the stairs.

Beckie Lang of the Association for the Study of Obesity in the UK welcomes the study. "It's great that it makes people think about what they are doing."

But she also suggests complementing the positive message on stairs with negative ones in lifts: "You would have a reinforcing effect if you get the message in both places, and catch people who don't want to feel lazy."

Four day's food

According to the World Health Organisation, one billion adults are overweight, and 300 million of those are obese. About 22% of British adults and about 30% of American adults are obese, according to the US Centers for disease Control and Prevention.

Webb and Eves estimate that an 80-kilogram man walking up a flight of stairs eight times a day for a year would burn off the equivalent of four days' intake of food.

"Even small changes can make big differences," says Lang. "People often think they have to make drastic changes, but that isn't really the case."

Lang also argues that the design of buildings often encourages obesity: "We want to make the healthy option the most attractive option, the default option, rather than the most difficult."

Journal reference: American Journal of Health Promotion

wala · 09-03-2007, 01:16 AM

wow, thats great. Something so simple, yet effective.. that could be imcorporated in many ways I bet!

IceDragon · 09-03-2007, 01:18 AM

It would be fantastic if they came up with these motivational messages for everywhere - maybe in the street it could recommend walking or something to help brain health (according to some reports, walking cuts your risks of diseases like Alzheimers and dementia).

wala · 09-03-2007, 04:08 AM

thats it - simple things that get people thinking...

b.spencer · 09-08-2007, 09:23 AM

I can tell you from personal experience it's really true. I didn't want to feel "abnormal," even knowing how big I was. I gravitated toward people who ate for pleasure as much as I did. That doesn't mean I didn't have thinner friends, but almost all of them were obese. No one ever made a comment about how much I ate or how I looked.

Now, I just do not fit in with those people anymore. I do not eat the way they do, my free time isn't spent the way they do. They don't say it, but they're not entirely comfortable around me either. It's not that they are not good people or friends, but I just don't fit. I'm much more comfortable now with friends from the gym or the hiking club.

wala · 09-08-2007, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by b.spencer

I can tell you from personal experience it's really true. I didn't want to feel "abnormal," even knowing how big I was. I gravitated toward people who ate for pleasure as much as I did. That doesn't mean I didn't have thinner friends, but almost all of them were obese. No one ever made a comment about how much I ate or how I looked.

Now, I just do not fit in with those people anymore. I do not eat the way they do, my free time isn't spent the way they do. They don't say it, but they're not entirely comfortable around me either. It's not that they are not good people or friends, but I just don't fit. I'm much more comfortable now with friends from the gym or the hiking club.

Must be tough hey mate. Its sort of like the saying - succcess breeds success. the same types of people seem to hand out, get on with each other better etc..

Its a shame none of the larger friends dont get some inspiration from your achievements?? do you ever preach anything to them or do they ever ask about how to change for the better?

b.spencer · 09-08-2007, 12:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wala

Must be tough hey mate. Its sort of like the saying - succcess breeds success. the same types of people seem to hand out, get on with each other better etc..

Its a shame none of the larger friends dont get some inspiration from your achievements?? do you ever preach anything to them or do they ever ask about how to change for the better?

To tell you the truth, I have lost a few friends over the getting in shape. They said my personality changed too much. That I changed too much, and that I wasn't the person they came to befriend anymore.

At first, I was so gung ho about trying to get them to start exercising. I was so intoxicated by the feeling of doing things that fit people take totally for-granted -- I remember vividly the first time I could turn around in my car seat to back out of the driveway, or the first time in my life I rode a roller coaster, or ran my first mile without stopping. -- I wanted them to do it too. "If I can, they certainly can," was what I kept thinking. With a few I tried everything I could think of, even to the point of bringing them to the gym and paying the guest myself. But, they just didn't want it. So, I learned to back off being proactive toward them. The most I'll say is if they ever want help, I'll be there for them.

At some point, everybody I know has asked me about how to change, what they need to do to get in shape or lose weight. But, when I start talking about eating clean and healthy foods, cutting out over processed junk, SWEATING in the gym -- "I don't want muscles, I just wanna lose weight" I've heard until I'm sick --, there is this near universal look of sadness that comes over them. I can almost read it in their minds, "But there must be some easier way" and that's all that ever comes of it.

I'm totally convinced that when you are overweight, you are a drug addict. You are addicted to food as much as someone addicted to cocaine. You get your highs, you have your crashes, you look for your fixes when you think you need them. I was addicted to food, and I had to hit rock bottom before I came to my senses. But, once that moment happened -- and I remember exactly when it did -- the whole world changed. I wasn't going to let anyone or anything stop me. Now, if anything, I'm addicted to my workouts and everything that goes along with this lifestyle. My active friends understand totally. My old ones don't understand at all.

wala · 09-08-2007, 01:15 PM

Well Spencer, you tried your best trying to help out your friends and I guess you got the response that I'd expect from that type of person - only a small few, yourself included, can take the step and see sense and actually do something about it for the better...

At least now your are addicted to something that is actually good for you!!

I'm also addicted, most people are right?